September 25, 2009
DREAMS of establishing a manned moon base could become reality within two decades after India's first lunar mission found evidence of large quantities of water on the surface.
Data from the Chandrayaan-1 probe suggests water is still being formed on the moon.
Scientists said the breakthrough would change the face of lunar exploration.
"It's very satisfying," said Mylswamy Annadurai, the mission's project director at the Indian Space Research Organisation in Bangalore.
The search for water was one of the mission's main objectives, but finding it was a surprise, the scientists said.
The unmanned craft was equipped with NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper, designed to search for water by picking up electromagnetic radiation emitted by minerals.
And the M3 made the unexpected discovery that water might still be forming on the moon's surface.
The results will provide a significant boost for India as it tries to catch up with China in the 21st-century space race.
"This will create a considerable stir -- it was wholly unexpected," said one scientist involved in Chandrayaan-1.
"People thought Chandrayaan was lagging behind the rest, but the science that's coming out, it's going to be agenda-setting."
Scientists have long hoped astronauts could be based on the moon and use water found there to drink, extract oxygen to breathe and hydrogen for fuel.
Studies had suggested there could be ice around the moon's poles, but scientists were unable to confirm the findings.
The M3, an imaging spectrometer, was designed to search for water by detecting electromagnetic radiation given off by minerals on and just below the moon's surface. Unlike previous lunar spectrometers, it was sensitive enough to detect small amounts of water.
The Times